


We're like partners.

by textsandwords



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 22:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7010953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/textsandwords/pseuds/textsandwords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shaw is an NYPD homicide detective who just got a confusing new case that caused her to have the most annoying consultant/partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're like partners.

“So, no ID on the body?” she said bored, already knowing the answer.

After hearing the predicted “no”, Sameen got up and walked to her car, running to the precinct to finish some late paperwork before proceeding on the case.

Sameen Shaw is an NYPD homicide detective for the past 15 years. Dropped med school to became a detective after her parents died in a car crash. They were the only reason she entered med school. She hated medicine. It was boring and, to be honest, a lot hypocrite. Sameen loved action, being in control, adrenaline, suspense, _being in danger_. She would never have that being a boring doctor working in a lame hospital, treating regular flu most of the time. Being able to carry a gun, feeling in control of tenses situations, beating up the bad guys, _fearing for her life in the middle of a gunfire_. She enjoyed that.

This morning she was designated to a new homicide. White, male, mid-30s was shot in the head in a random alley on the Upper East Side. He had no ID with him, but it wasn't a robbery gone wrong since he had $200 bucks and his phone with him. This was definitely a murder.

Her partner, John Reese, was waiting for some news from the medical examiner while she was looking through the victim's phone. There was no info in who this guy was, but there was an appointment settle to this afternoon. The address belonged to Anthony Mallow, in Brooklyn. So, without thinking twice, Shaw decided to take a look.  
The house's front door was opened, there weren't any lights on and it looked like the house was empty.

“NYPD” Shaw screamed at the door, while entering the house.

Everything was trashed and it was a giant mess. She went to the kitchen looking if there was anyone around, finding a body lying on the floor. There was a pool of blood around the body. She realized it was Anthony Mallow. Shaw pulled her phone to call the precinct when she saw a reflection on the fridge of a tall woman ready to beat her head with a pan.

As a reflex, she dodged the attack and pointed her gun.

“A gun? That sounds fun.” the woman said with a smirk.

Sameen wasn't with patience, so she tried to shot the woman's foot but was really shocked seeing that she diverted the shot. The tall brunette reached for a taser in her pocket, making a funny smile noticing that this made Shaw angrier.

“Not a fan of tasers?” she mocked and Sameen couldn't hold it anymore, taking a chance of the first punch.

[…]

The two women were in the small interview room, sitting in front of each other with a metal table between them. The tall woman was cuffed but didn't seem too bummed about that. They both were in complete silence.

“Finch has something for us.” John said, entering the room and breaking the silence.

“Tell Harold that I'll be there in 5 minutes.” Shaw said without taking her eyes of the brunette in front of her.

John closed the door and the silence returned, making Shaw impatient. She enjoyed silence, a lot, but not when was in the middle of an investigation with a suspect without a name that almost won a fight with her earlier.

“So, Harold Finch is working this case? That must be interesting.” the woman smiled.

“Do you know him?” Shaw asked carefully.

“I don't know him personally, but I'm kinda of a fan. He's a little bit famous, in _my world_.”

“Your _world_? What the fuck that's supposed to mean?” Shaw was losing her patience really fast, and that wasn't good.

The woman stayed quiet, just giving a smirk. Sameen went to talk to Finch and John, leaving the woman alone in the room. 40 minutes later, when she returned, the woman was with the same smirk when Shaw left.

“Where did you meet Anthony Mallow?”

“Wouldn't you like to know?” the woman provoked.

“Look,” Sameen started, trying not to lose her temper “I'll be honest with you. I'm investigating two homicides right now that may be connected and you were at one crime scene. So, please, can you just answer this questions and help me out?”

“Sounds interesting. But how about you answer my question and I'll answer yours? Just like sharing information.” the brunette grinned.

Sameen was totally furious now. She shouldn't give any information to that stranger - to a stranger that pissed her off so much. To a woman that started to get on her nerves. But she needed the information that the brunette had.

“Okay. We will play this little _game_.”

Shaw got really suspicious with the questions about how she found Anthony's house. After five simple questions that only were related to Anthony, Shaw started to think that the woman wasn't the killer of the man from the night before. She was definitely clueless about the other murderer.

“That's all?”

“Yes, detective” she smiled with a wise tone in her voice.

“So, first of all, what's your name?”

“Turing. Caroline Turing.”

“And what do you do for a living, Caroline?”

“I'm a psychiatrist.”

 _This nutjob is a psychiatrist? I feel sorry for her patients._ Shaw thought, raising her eyebrow. “Do you knew the victim, Anthony Mallow?”

“Yes. He was my patient.”

“Care to explain to me why you were at your patient's house on a Saturday afternoon?”

“He called me early, saying that he was being followed in the streets. He suffered from schizophrenia. So I went to check on him, seeing if he was okay.”

“What happened when you got into his house?”

“Well, I searched for him at the house, it was trashed. When I got to the kitchen, he was lying on the ground with a pool of blood around him. I knew that he was dead.”

“Why didn't you call the police?”

“I was about to, but I heard a noise coming for upstairs and thought that maybe was the person who attacked him.” Caroline's face looked a little worried, but Shaw suspected that it was all an act.

“And why the hell did you attacked me?”

“I thought you were the one who attacked Anthony.”

“Mrs. Turning, why did you had a taser with you?”

“Can't a girl take care of herself?” a little provocative smile was in her face, making Shaw a little irritated again.

“I'm gonna check the info you gave it now, be right back.”

Sameen barely believed any word that came out from the woman's mouth. The story sounded so shady. And it was a real shock when everything checked up. The name, Caroline Turing, was in the police's system because of a DYI that happened a few months ago. The named checked with the face and she also ran Anthony's name, finding a lot of incidents that he assaulted strangers in the streets, and the name Caroline Turing as he's psychiatrist.

Even with prove, Shaw wasn't convinced at all. There was something suspect about that woman and she would figure out what it was.

She came back to the interviewing room, getting Caroline's attention.

“So, everything checked out. But I need to know where you were yesterday night, between 10pm-1am.”

“I was at a fund-raising event at the Plaza Hotel, for a project that helps people from the streets treat psychological diseases. You can check the guest list and also the donors, I donated $5,000 last night.”

Shaw uncuffed Caroline, going to her desk to prepared the paperwork for the woman's release. The annoying little smile in Caroline's face was pissing off Shaw, and she didn't even know why. Maybe because she was definitely hiding something and lying to the police.

“We're done here.” Sameen said glad after Caroline signed the paper.

“It was fun meeting you.” the brunette raised an eyebrow.

“Can you just tell me from where do you know Harold and what the fuck do you meant earlier?”

Caroline opened her mouth when the detective's phone rang. Shaw answered quickly and made a bummed face. She took her gun and badge from the desk, getting up.

“Maybe another time. I have the feeling that we will see each other really soon, Detective Shaw.” the brunette said leaving before Shaw could say anything, with that annoying smirk on her face.

“Don't leave town!” Shaw shouted after seeing the woman entering the elevator.

Caroline winked at her, and Sameen rolled her eyes. She tried to calm down a little before meeting John and going to the morgue.

[…]

Sameen went alone, as usual, at a suspect's house. There wasn't a sign of anyone in the apartment, but the door was opened, so she entered anyway. There was a masked woman, in the living room, using a laptop on a desk in the corner. At the side of the desk was a body - a dead body - of Matthew Smith, the suspect. The woman heard her steps and start to shoot in her direction.

“NYPD! Put your gun down.” Shaw yelled, hiding behind a wall.

The woman didn't stop so she started to shoot back. Sameen was trying not to hit the woman in a way that could kill her since she could be a lead to the cases – or the murder herself. After failing a couple of times, the shot hit her shoulder making the woman scream in pain. She kept shooting until jumping out of the window. Shaw ran to the broken window, in time to see the woman turning the corner.

She called for reinforcements, announcing _another_ freaking body. While waiting for everyone to get there, she caught herself looking at the laptop. There was something opened on the screen. It was a lot of those coding bullshit that Shaw didn't understand but at the end of a lot of lines, there always were 4 names. The same 4 names. _Mallow, Smith, Harrison, Frey._

Mallow and Smith were the last name of the first two victims. Does that mean that the name of the first victim's last name was one of those? And who was the other person? Was it the murder or another victim?

Shaw felt a little headache. Everything about this case was so fucking confusing. She was feeling the urge to punch something, to discharge a gun in something - or someone.

[…]

“What the hell is she doing here?” Shaw asked angrily, seeing Caroline Turing sitting on a bench inside the precinct.

“We need to know if she knows anything about the names that were in that code stuff in Matthew's computer.” John answered, more interested in his own computer.

Shaw could feel the eyes of the brunette staring at her. Trying not to get pissed at John, she went to the evidence lockers.

“Can you please give me the laptop found at the crime scene from the murder earlier today?” she asked the officer who was in charge of the evidence room.

“Sorry. One of the morgue guys came here earlier today with Detective Reese and asked for the computer”

 _What the hell a medical examiner wants with the victim's laptop? And why didn't John tell me about that?_ Shaw thought while going back to her desk, trying to find John anywhere so she could yell at him.

“Hello detective” Caroline appeared in front of Shaw.

“What do you want?” Shaw said grumpy without looking at the woman, trying to see if John was around.

“Your partner said that you have some questions for me”

“What? I don..”

“He was in a hurry” the brunette interrupted Shaw, which made the small woman really angry “and you needed to ask me about some names.”

Shaw huffed impatience, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk to Caroline sit.

“We have to do this quick, ok? I have a lot of work to do. I don't have time for your funny business like last time.”

“Whatever you need, Sameen”

Shaw has never said her first name to this woman, how could she know then? She thought about asking but it would only make her angrier, and she definitely didn't have time for that now. Sameen just rolled her eyes seeing the smirk on the woman's face after seeing she had got Shaw off guard.

“Ok. So, have you ever heard Anthony mention the name 'Matthew Smith'?”

“I think he was one of the only friends Anthony had.”

“Well, we found his address in Anthony's phone. Apparently he went there last week. Did Anthony mention why?”

“I don't recall him saying anything about going to a friend's house.”

“How about the name Harrison? Does that ring a bell? Could be last name or first.”

“Not that I remembered.”

“So, last question, have he ever talked about someone named Frey?”

Shaw looked at the woman's horrified expression and felt surprised. Caroline didn't look scared or worried even when Shaw held a gun pointed at her, but now she only mentions a simple name and the woman looks like she lost faith in humanity?

“No,” the brunette recomposed her face, now with a serious look “he never mentioned that name.”

“Are you s..” before Sameen could finish her sentence, the woman was on her way to the elevator.

[…]

“Let me get this straight. You are trying to tell me that Finch here is some kinda computer genius ex-hacker and stuff? This Finch here?” Shaw started to say with an impressed tone that turned into a mock.

“What's wrong with that, Miss Shaw? You don't think I could be good with computers?” Harold's voice sounded disappointed.

“No, it's not it. You clearly are the nerdy computer type, but I didn't figure you were the nerd badass hacker type.”

“Well, I guess that we can get impressed by the most ordinary people in or lives.” Harold smiled, amused with himself.

“Yeah, whatever. But now, the part that got me more confused is that someone entered here wearing a mask and robbed the only freaking evidence that could lead to something?” Shaw said, sounding really angry.

“Yes, unfortunately, that's correct.”

“And where were you in the middle of this?” she pointed at John.

“Bear needed to get some air” he looked at the dog, lying under Finch's desk.

Sameen wanted to punch them both in the face, but she saw how happy Bear was and forgot why she was angry. This dog wasn't even hers, but she loved him. He was the only living thing that she ever loved.

“Fine.” she tried not to sound furious “Did you get anything from the computer?”

“In fact, I did. It wasn't much but it could be something. The other two names – Harrison and Frey – contacted our victims through a hacktivism website. I discovered that they all were responsible for hacking some famous companies, causing them to loose a lot of money.”

“That's sounds like a reason for murder.” Reese whispered.

“Also, I managed to get their computer's IP number, discovering the last place that they entered online.”

“Dammit Finch, why didn't you started with that?” Shaw said impatience.

“Well, I'm afraid that only one is useful for us.”

“Why's that?”

“Harrison's IP address' in on the Bronx, but Frey's is on the Liberty Island.” Finch showed to the detectives the map of the city on his computer's screen, indicating the localization of the IPs addresses.

“At least we have one place to go right now.” Sameen smiled, getting up from the chair.

[…]

“The person who trashed this apartment was the same that trashed Anthony's and Matthew's.” Shaw commented, pointed the gun to whatever direction she was looking at.

“Put down your weapon, Shaw. There's no one here.” John mocked, knowing the last two incidents when she went a suspect's house.

They searched the whole apartment but didn't found any leads to whoever the murder was. At least they found a picture of the apartment's owner, who was the first victim – discovering now that his name was Charlie Harrison.

“The only question now is who is this Frey person. Is it the killer or just another victim?” John said, waiting for Shaw at the door.

“Yeah, except that we don't know anything about this freak.” Shaw just mumbled, making sure that they didn't miss anything suspect in the mess.

They were at the door leaving when a buzzing started echoing in the apartment. After another short search, they found a bag inside the air conductor. There was a computer and a phone inside.

“Shaw, I think we have a problem.”

“What?” she looked at Reese, who was checking the phone.

“This is a picture of the Anthony's psychiatrist attached to a text.”

Sameen looked at the phone's screen. She read the words ' _End this bitch or I will end you._ '.

[…]

After taking a really deep breath, Shaw finally knocked at the psychiatrist's door. She was really pissed by the fact that she didn't want to babysit this woman. But John bet her that who got to the precinct first would go to the psychiatrist's office and, unfortunately for Sameen, John won.

“Well, this is a surprise.” the brunette smiled while opening the door.

“Hello, Miss Turing.” Shaw mumbled the word, uninterested.

“What can I do for you, detective?” Caroline gave permission to Shaw enter in the office.

“Remembered those names that I asked you about? We found one of the name's apartment, it belonged to our first victim, Charlie Harrison.”

“And how can I help you?”

“We found a picture of you on his phone with a note that could be a threat to you.”

“Someone is trying to kill me?” Caroline's face was shocked.

“We believe that you are in danger so I'm here to...” Shaw suddenly shut up.

She got up from the couch and walked to a desk in the corner of the room, noticing the laptop that was stolen from Finch were there. Maybe Sameen was confused from looking so far away but when she came close, she noticed that the same stickers were on the laptop.

“How did you..” She was about to turn to the woman but felt an electric shock in her neck.

In a blink of an eye, Shaw was on the ground and couldn't move a muscle. She looked at the tall woman with a taser in her hand.

“Sorry Sam, you weren't supposed to see the computer.” Caroline said with a fake unhappy tone, pulling Shaw's body back to the chair.

She tied up the detective's hands and got an iron off a closed, turning on.

“So, you're a really excellent cop. I just didn't get it why did you quit med school.” Caroline was sitting in front of Sameen.

“H..h..How.. di..did” Shaw couldn't talk without stutter.

“How I know that? I've read your file and I'm kinda of a big fan.” the smirk in Caroline's face made Shaw angrier.

She was thinking in a thousand ways to escape, but she just couldn't move a muscle.

“Now, you're gonna tell me what do you know about Hanna Frey,” the woman opened Shaw's coat and shirt “because I really don't wanna hurt you.”

Caroline was with the iron next to Shaw's collarbone.

“Well, the thing is that they left out of my file is that I kinda of enjoy this sorta of thing.” Sameen just spat the words.

“I'm so glad that you said that.” Caroline said amused “I do too.”

Shaw closed her eyes, prepared to feel the burn of the hot iron on her chest when the brunette's phone buzzed. She made a disappointed look.

“Just when we started to really connect,” Caroline got up, getting her coat “your partner came to ruin the party. See you soon, Sam.”

The woman gave a last smirk before running out to the door.

[…]

“Finch, please tell me that you found something in this nutjob's computer.” Shaw was really impatient.

“Yes, I did find something but, unfortunately, it doesn't look useful.”

“Why?”

“It looks like Caroline Turing's bank accounts only started to move a couple of months ago, the same time that our victims started to chat to this Frey person. Before that, Caroline Turing was a ghost. I'm afraid that this could be an alias.”

“Wait,” Sameen's eyes flashed “Frey... She asked me if I knew anything about a Hanna Frey.”

The memory of herself being tied up in the chair by the brunette made Sameen wanted to punch something really hard. She closed her wrists and took a deep breath. John put his hand on her shoulder, offering a friendly smile. Bear was lying in her foot, so Shaw was trying to focus on him instead of her anger.

“Two of our victims had searches of Hanna Frey. Apparently she was born in a small town in Texas called Bishop. But it says here that she is missing since 1991.” Harold checked the computers.

“What if Caroline Turing is Hanna Frey?” John suggested.

“She was at a crime scene, robbed a laptop that could link her to our victims. It seems probable that she is, indeed, Hanna Frey.” Finch said looking at Shaw, but she was too concentrated at the walls.

Shaw was pissed. She wanted this case to end – it was giving her a really terrible headache. And this Caroline, Hanna - whatever her name is – was a freaking nutjob that Shaw really wanted to punch in the face. Everything about this case made her angrier.

“The question is how do we catch her.” John said, breaking the silence.

“She's always on this hacktivists websites, right?” Sameen finally talked.

“Correct. But now with the 3 man of her old 'team' dead, – apparently murdered by her – I don't think she will be in it.”

“We could try. I just remembered something that she told me that could help us out.”

“And what it that, Miss Shaw?” Harold asked.

“Finch, do you still know this hack shit like you used to, right?” Shaw said clever, thinking about her plan and it has chances that could really work.

[…]

It seems like their plan was going to work. However, Shaw was a little suspicious that it was working way to easily until now.

Harold entered in the hacktivists website making an invite to his new plan to invade the NSA and get something about surveillance cameras around the world. The number of wacky people who wanted to do that was really big, and it was really creepy. Finally, Frey entered in contact with him – talking about how surprising it was that the famous Harold Finch was back in action and if this had anything to do with a project he gave up years ago. John tried to ask about this project, but Finch sounded worried and kept saying that 'the past is in the past'. Another person tried to enter in contact with Finch and Frey, saying that they should meet and talk about this. Root – this other person – sounded so interested in Finch and talking about the same project that Frey had mentioned.

“Just let this maniac get whatever they want and we get them arrested too.” John said impatiently after Harold started to say it was getting a little bit dangerous.

The two people planned to meet with Finch on Friday, at the Central Park Zoo, so they could discuss everything before getting in action.

It was 3PM. Harold was sitting on a bench, next to a hot dog vendor, waiting for the two people. John was sitting on a bench a couple of meters away, keeping the eye on Harold. Shaw was dressed as a runner and kept doing rounds near, wearing a hoodie so Caroline couldn't see her face.

“Hello, Harold. I'm gonna need you to come with me.” a brunette said appearing in front of Finch, showing him a gun “And sign to the big lug there not to follow us or I'll have to shoot someone.”

Harold looked at John and nodded a 'no', trying to indicate that the woman had a gun. They started to walk in the direction of a bridge, staying under there.

“Please, don't kill me.” Harold said.

“I'm not gonna kill you, Harry.” she smiled at him.

“What do you want from me, Miss Frey?”

“Oh, I'm not Miss Frey. I'm trying to find her, just like you guys.”

Before Harold could say anything, a blonde woman appeared from nowhere. “I can't believe it. Samantha Groves, is that you?”

The fake impressed tone in the woman's voice made Finch feel afraid. Something else was going on – something that he did not see coming.

“Who are you?” he said, noticing that the brunette – now named Samantha - on his side was shocked.

“I'm Frey.”

“Stop. Using. Her. Name.” Samantha said with pain in her voice.

“But why would I do that? It was so fun watching this sorrow expression on your face.” the blond laughed.

“What do you want? I've already apologized years ago. What was I supposed to do?” the brunette almost yelled.

“You could just not have shot him.”

“And let him kill me for not letting him take advantage of me?”

“Don't say like you were innocent. Like you weren't this freaking little whore who always wanted him.” Harold got scared with the blond's tone. She sounded more angry than Shaw – if it is possible someone be angrier than Sameen.

“It's not my fault that you fell in love with a freaking monster that wasn't happy just taking advantage of you.” Samantha screamed.

In the same moment, a gunshot noise echoed the space. Finch saw the brunette falling on the ground, putting her hands on a big wound next to her stomach.

“Any last words, Sammy?” the blond had the gun pointed to Samantha's head.

Before the brunette could say anything, another gunshot echoed. The blond dropped her gun and her arm started to bleed a lot. She tried to get the gun but steps were heard, so she ran away. John and Shaw appeared.

“What happened?” Shaw asked and went help the brunette on the ground.

“I believe that we got this whole thing wrong.” Finch said with a relief in seeing the two detectives.

[…]

“Hello, Samantha.” Shaw said, entering the hospital room.

“Don't call me that.” the brunette mumbled, looking at the wall.

“It's your name, isn't?” Sameen sounded confused, wondering if it was another freaking alias.

“Not anymore.”

“What should I call you then?”

“Root.”

The two women stayed in silence for a while. Root never took her eyes off the walls, making Shaw feel unwanted in the room.

“So.. Care to tell me your side of the story?”

“What do you mean?”

“For a hacker, you're not that smart, huh?” Shaw said in a really low voice, but Root heard and it made her smile, finally looking at the detective.

“What do you want to know?”

“Who was the blond woman in the park?”

“Someone that I used to know.”

“You have to collaborate more than that if you want out of this.” Sameen pointed to the cuffs that were holding Root's arms in the bed.

“Her name was Martine Rousseau. She was my colleague in high school.”

“Why did she shot you?”

“It's not relevant to your case.” Root stared at the wall again.

“And how do you know that?” Shaw was getting angrier with the lack of information that Root was giving her.

“Because it got nothing to do with the 3 murderers she committed.”

“Can you please say what you know about this woman and the cases? I really want to catch the game later.” Shaw blurted the words.

“I didn't know you liked hockey, Sameen. I figure you more for a football fan.” Root smirked.

“I like all sports, is something wrong with that?” Shaw was wondering how the woman knew there was a hockey game later.

“Not at all. It's nice to know more things about you.” she arched her eyebrows.

Shaw rolled her eyes and got up. Root just wanted to annoy her – just like the other times they had a conversation.

“She killed them because they found out what her plan was. The motive behind all the hacks.” Root said when Sameen reached the door.

“And what was that?” the detective sat in the chair next to the bed again.

“I don't know. I didn't figure it out yet.”

“Did you know that she was Frey since the beginning?”

“No,” Root took a deep breath “I actually got surprised. I'm always watching these hackers websites. One day I saw someone calling her Hanna, that's when I started to investigate her.”

“Did you knew Hanna Frey? What happened to her?” Shaw questioned a little worried, seeing that every time she said Frey, the brunette made a painful expression.

“Not relevant. I think that Martine used this name to catch my attention.”

They stayed in silence again.

“How's Harry? He almost had a heart attack when I was shot.”

“He is fine. Now he hates guns even more.”

“You know that someone needs to protect Harry, right?”

“With John on his side, I'm pretty sure he's gonna be fine.” Sameen almost smiled.

“Big lug better protect him.”

“You should hire someone to protect you, by the way.”

“Detective Shaw, are you worried about me?” Root grinned.

“Whatever.” Sameen uncuffed Root “Thanks for the info, you're now free.”

Shaw got out of the room before Root could say anything.

[…]

A few weeks passed. The case was solved – well, sorta of. They knew who the murder was but she was on the run.

Shaw was doing some late paperwork on her desk when notice someone was behind her.

“Whoever you are, I do not have time now.” Shaw spat the words.

“I was hoping you could show me around. I'm trying to find the bathroom.”

Shaw turned around, facing Root. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Nice to see you again, Sam.” Root had her usual smiled.

“What do you want?”

“I need you to show me around, I'm not joking about needing to go to the bathroom.”

“I have work to do, so I don't have time for your games. Go back to wherever you came from.”

“This is not a nice way to treat your new Tech Consultant.” Root faked a sad face.

“What?” Sameen asked confused.

“I think we're gonna have so much fun catching killers.” the taller woman winked.

Shaw took a deep breath, trying not to punch her desk. This was gonna be hell. Root was just going to piss her off and provoke until Sameen got angrier.

This wasn't gonna be fun at all.

 


End file.
